To prevent overloading of recording sheets, a known sheet feeder may include an overload prevention plate for limiting the number of recording sheets to be loaded. The overload prevention plate is disposed at a distance from a surface on which a sheet is loaded. In this art, if the overload prevention plate contacts a stack of sheets during sheet feeding, the sheets may be fed under load. Thus, the overload prevention plate is separated from a stack of sheets by a solenoid while the sheets are fed.
However, in the above art, the solenoid is exclusively used to separate the overload prevention plate from the sheets, and thus it increases the cost of manufacturing.